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Dragon Age: Origins
"Men and women from every race, warriors and mages, barbarians and kings... the Grey Wardens sacrificed everything to stem the tide of darkness... and prevailed." —Duncan, head of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden Dragon Age: Origins (previously known as Dragon Age) is a third-person role-playing game developed by BioWare. The game was released on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 3, 2009 in North America, November 5, 2009 in Australia, and November 6, 2009 in Europe. The PS3 version was planned to be released later in November, but BioWare has said they have been able to get the PS3 version to "our high standard of quality". A digital download version for the Mac was also released on December 21, 2009. Dragon Age: Origins is a single-player only game that BioWare co-CEO Ray Muzyka describes as a "spiritual successor" to the Baldur's Gate series, though it is not based on Dungeons & Dragons rules or the Forgotten Realms setting. It utilizes a new BioWare-developed game engine named Eclipse. There is also a toolset for creation of fan-made content available for free download. An expansion pack called Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening was released in March 2010 for all platforms. A full sequel, presently only known as Dragon Age 2, is expected to be released in March 2011. Dragon Age 2 dated for March 2011, playable character is a human named Hawke, Joystiq.com, accessed 2010-07-08 Official Description You are a Grey Warden, one of the last of a legendary order of guardians. With the return of an ancient foe and the kingdom engulfed in civil war, you have been chosen by fate to unite the shattered lands and slay the archdemon once and for all. Start your adventure by picking your class as a Human, Elf, or Dwarf. Then after that, it is all up to you. The choices you make guide the path you take through the Ninth Age: The Dragon Age. Plot The player character—"the Warden"—will begin his/her journey with one of the six origin stories. The origin chosen determines who the Warden is prior to the main events of the game's story. By the same measure, it also affects how NPCs (party and non-party) will react to the Warden. Elves, for example, are often viewed as second-class citizens. Controls Gameplay The designers incorporated origin stories for each race and some classes in the game. For example, a dwarf who is a member of the noble caste will begin the game as part of the royal family in one of the dwarven cities, while a dwarf commoner will begin on the streets of the city. Origin stories provide an introduction to the game world and hours of gameplay. People that the Warden meets during the origin story may reappear throughout the game, some of whom may be adversaries. There is no tracking of alignment as in previous BioWare games, but the moral choices of the main character throughout the game will still affect the story. You may save the world whether you are good or evil, but the decisions that you make in the process will change the world around you, deciding who will become king, for example, and affecting nations and races and their places in the world. These decisions will also influence your companions, and could ultimately lead to a companion deciding to leave your party if they do not agree with your approach. As with the Baldur's Gate series, players will be able to issue orders to NPCs in real time or while the game is paused, and queue up actions such as spells and special attacks. Key Features *Six unique origin stories, each with a story that affects the game as a whole. *Three base classes to choose from: rogue, warrior or mage. *Three playable races: dwarf, human, elf. *Party-based gameplay with the player's character, plus up to three other characters chosen from a larger pool during the game. *Combat is real-time pause-and-play tactical. What this means is that you select an enemy to begin attacking automatically, and at any point can pause the game to select commands. *The camera provides an over-the-shoulder viewpoint when zoomed in, or an isometric-style viewpoint when zoomed out, although on the console editions, zooming, and therefore the isometric-style viewpoint, is unavailable. *Spell interactions (e.g. a blizzard spell can put out fires, and fire spells can ignite grease from a grease spell). *Depth-of-field effects which can be switched off via the options menu. Editions BioWare has released a regular edition of Dragon Age: Origins as well as special editions for collectors. * Regular Edition for the PC, XBox360 and the Playstation 3 * Dragon Age: Origins Collector's Edition * Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Edition * Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition Downloadable Content Origins features several pieces of downloadable content to further the story told in Origins. Major DLC *Warden's Keep *The Stone Prisoner *Return to Ostagar *''The Darkspawn Chronicles'' *Leliana's Song * The Golems of Amgarrak * Witch Hunt System Specs (PC and Mac) Windows XP Minimum Specifications OS: Windows XP with SP3 CPU: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.4Ghz or greater AMD X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8Ghz or greater RAM: 1GB or more Video: ATI Radeon X850 128MB or greater NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB or greater DVD ROM (Physical copy) 20 GB HD space Windows Vista Minimum Specifications OS: Windows Vista with SP1 CPU: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater AMD X2 (or equivalent) running at 2.2GHZ or greater RAM: 1.5 GB or more Video: ATI Radeon X1550 256MB or greater NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB or greater DVD ROM (Physical copy) 20 GB HD space Recommended Specifications CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz Processor or equivalent RAM: 4 GB (Vista) or 2 GB (XP) Video: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater DVD ROM (Physical copy) 20 GB HD space Mac OS X Minimum Specifications OS: Mac OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard or higher CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor RAM: 2 GB Video: ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 or higher. This game will NOT run on the Intel GMA (950 or X3100) class of integrated video cards. Digital Download only 17 GB HD space Toolset BioWare released a "developer-grade" toolset (the same one that they used to make Dragon Age: Origins) to allow modification and customization of the game and the creation of new and unique stand-alone games. Trailer Gallery Sacred Ashes Trailer Default Player CGI.jpg|Warden LelianaCGI.jpg|Leliana Sample 1 LelianaCGI2.png|Leliana Sample 2 Dragon Age Origins 01.jpg|Leliana Sample 3 MorriganCGI.jpg|Morrigan Sample 1 MorriganCGI2.jpg|Morrigan Sample 2 MorriganCGI FA.jpg|Morrigan Sample 3 Morrigan cgi.png|Morrigan Sample 4 Morrigan.jpg|Morrigan Sample 5 StenCGI.jpg|Sten Trivia * The developers have cited "realistic" fantasy fiction such as George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series and fantasy paintings by artists such as Frank Frazetta as inspiration for the game. * Dragon Age: Origins is the first BioWare game developed for the PlayStation 3. See Also *Developers *Easter Eggs References External Links *Official site Category:Games Category:Real world articles